There has been a lot of different types of matches where the rules are allowed to be bent like a no holds barred match, a hardcore match, a leather strap match, a steel cage match and even a house of horrors match. One type of match that we have not covered that usually garners up some great matches in the history of the sport is the Ladder match which in it’s own right can be one hellacious kind of match. That is why for today we are checking out one from NJPW (New Japan Pro Wrestling) that features one current candidate for match of the year in 2017 in Kenny Omega taking on the beast Michael Elgin in a ladder match for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship at NJPW Dominion 6.19 in Osaka jo-Hall. You had to wonder going into the match what kind of role Hangman Page and Yujiro Takahashi were going to play in the match as they hung out at ringside in Omega’s corner. Before the match could officially start, the referee inspected the ring and discovered that The Young Bucks were hanging out under the ring which made things a little better for Elgin. As soon as the bell rang, Omega tried to get a head start on Elgin, but it didn’t work as he was able to fend him off with a big shoulder block.

Omega was going to have to rely and his speed and agility in the ring against the powerhouse abilities of Michael Elgin and he was doing a very good job of it at first as Elgin put his power on display. A match of this magnitude is also about the spots and Kenny would use his head when he noticed Elgin grabbing the ladder, he springboard crossbodied himself on the ladder which landed on top of Elgin. He followed it up with a huge moonsault over the top rope and on to Elgin, but that is when it pays to be in a club because Page and Takahashi made their presence felt as they attacked Elgin. As Kenny grabbed a ladder and went into the ring, Page and Takahashi attempted to make him watch as Kenny climbed, but he fought out of it forcing Omega down and proceeded to use the ladder like a helicopter as he took out all three Bullet Club members. Elgin began to abuse the heck out Omega as he used the ladder to his advantage to punish him.

For most of the match, these guys were seriously punishing each other to the point you wondered just how much could they take. We see Kenny do a springboard sunset flip powerbomb over a ladder that Elgin was standing on. We see Elgin deliver a backbody drop and send Omega into the ladder crushing it and rendering it useless. After making a makeshift ladder table with two trash cans holding the ladder, Elgin gets powerbombed into it by Omega. They must use all of the ladders available to them as weapons as they beat each other senseless. They were also throwing everything they could at each other like big forearm shots from Elgin or a sling blade from Omega, but both refused to quit. Later in the match after he powerbombed Omega into two tables that didn’t break, he went for it, but The Young Bucks stopped it as they stopped him from climbing. They proceeded to handcuff him to the corner and they beat him up until Ricochet and Matt Sydal came to the rescue eliminating The Young Bucks. Noticing that Omega started climbing the ladder, Elgin used all of his strength to rip the handcuffs from the corner. He grabbed the ladder and sent Omega to the outside eliminating him from the picture as he climbed the ladder grabbing the belt for the win. What a match between the two reminding me of the Attitude Era.

Earlier in the year, we had heard that the pro wrestling world cup was actually going to be a thing and that WCPW was hosting most of it. Well back on March 21, 2017, they held the first opening round English qualifiers at the Harvey Hadden Sports Village in Nottingham, England. One of the matches on the card featured a team known as The Prestige (BT Gunn, Joe Coffey, Joe Hendry & Travis Banks) who after attacking their GM was put in a match against the Bullet Club (The Young Bucks and Adam Cole) who teamed with Gabriel Kidd to make things even. Nick Jackson and Travis Banks kicked off the match and Travis immediately showed his technical wrestling prowess to Nick. Immediately afterwards, Nick showed Travis how his speed and agility would get the best of him with a kick to the gut and a hurricanrana. Both men would tag out and Adam Cole and BT Gunn would go at it, but after dancing around a bit, Gunn would tag in Joe Coffey instead to face Adam Cole and almost in an instance Gunn would be tagged back in. After a couple of wrist locks from both men, Adam would drive Gunn to the corner where he would let go. As soon as Cole signaled with the too sweet, all hell would break loose and both teams were in the ring.

The Prestige had the Bullet Club where they wanted them in came clutch formations when they pulled their key cards out and stuffed them in the mouths of the club disrespectfully. So, all the members got up, pulled the key cards out, stuffed them down their throats, and they all superkicked them. The members of the Prestige tried to get back in the ring, but the Bullet Club made sure they didn’t with some impressive offense like Nick having one member in a head scissors while Cole and Matt drop kicked him simultaneously. The Young Bucks and Kidd (Cole was not too happy) got down in Terminator position, flew against the ropes, and launched themselves out of the ring with suicide dives hitting their targets like heat seeking missiles. Kidd and The Young Bucks would then powerbomb Banks against the ring apron and this kind of impressed the Young Bucks who were not sure how they felt about Kidd yet. They’d finally bring the action back into the ring where the Bullet Club was in firm control of the match.

They were working on the arm of BT Gunn and they were doing great with the frequent tags between The Young Bucks and Cole, but everything fell apart as soon as Kidd stole the tag from Cole. He gets to the top rope and he comes down on poor Matt instead of Gunn who is then able to get some offense going before all of The Prestige come storming into the ring again. Hendry and Co. would begin working on Gabriel Kidd who is only 19 years old and a local boy to Nottingham. It was a smart move for The Prestige considering that Kidd is still winless in WCPW. Coffey at one point looked like he was going to mock The Young Bucks with a superkick, but chose a chin lock instead before he made the tag to Gunn. Things looked hopeless for the club as The Prestige were constantly making quick tags, but most importantly they were keeping Kidd isolated in their half of the ring. Kidd would attempt to show some gusto in the ring, but Banks was quick to cut off the attempt with a superkick of his own. As soon as that happened, Kidd retaliated with a huge clothesline, but the question was could he make it to his corner to make a tag before Banks did.

He would make the tag to Cole while Banks made the tag to Joe Hendry who soon found himself getting superkicked and then Cole followed it up with the shining wizard, but he couldn’t get the pinfall. Cole would try for another shining wizard, but no on the 1-2-3. He would then hit Hendry with a bicycle kick, but both men would go down with a double clothesline. Coffey and Nick would get the tag from their respective partner, but both of the Bucks came in as well as Gunn and they’d get superkicked for their efforts and Coffey would get hit with a salida del soul of sorts from Matt Jackson. The Young Bucks had taken over the match and they were doing it with some impressive moves like a lung exploder or hanging Coffey from the ropes and performing a senton on top of him. Unfortunately for them, it wouldn’t last long as Coffey took out each member one by one, but that wouldn’t last long either as they double superkicked him when he tried a springboard maneuver from the top turnbuckle. Banks would try to fight all four members of the team, but when he tried a springboard, he was superkicked by all four of them.

The referee was quickly losing control of the match, but to be honest he didn’t really have control from the start. Kidd would finally get his too sweet moment so to celebrate he would do a moonsault to the outside on all four members of The Prestige. All out chaos would ensue as they were all hitting each other with what they could in the ring with Matt ebign the last one to hit Hendry with a superkick. After all the members of the Club were not on the apron, Matt had no choice but to tag in Kidd who would then Superkick the referee by accident. The Prestige would take over by hitting stereo superkicks and a black coffee by Joe Coffey which was all he needed to make the pin on Kidd. What a match between these two teams, but the smarter team prevailed leaving the winless Kidd to fend for the Bullet Club. Hey, don’t forget to like our page on Facebook at Facebook.com/MRXPUNCHOUT and while you are it why don’t you follow us on Twitter too.

I announced some time ago that we were going to do a tournament because there are just way too many wrestlers to choose from. So we did that back on Tuesday and we unleashed the indies brackets (it needed two) and the TNA bracket. As usual, we left it up to you guys to decide who you wanted to move ahead to be in the final set that actually competes for Wrestler Of The Year. Right here, we have the results of the indie brackets which includes wrestlers from Ring Of Honor, Revolution Pro, New Japan Pro Wrestling, Lucha Underground, and more. All matches were chosen at random from a hat and you voted. The first match up of the tournament saw former Revolution Pro star Zack Sabre Jr take on Lucha Underground star Pentagon Dark. You guys voted and unanimously voted Sabre through. The second match saw NJPW star Kazuchika Okada take on Ring Of Honor’s Bobby Fish and he ultimately moved on as Fish only received a vote.

Ring Of Honor’s Adam Cole took on the indie sensation Ricochet in the third match, but Cole won big with Ricochet only gaining a vote as well. The fourth and final match of the first bracket was a toss up as the 2016 NJPW Best of the Super Juniors tournament winner Will Ospreay fought Jay Lethal valiantly and won by getting 50% more of the votes. There was just way too many great indie stars that we couldn’t leave it to just one bracket, so we brought on another one. This bracket featured a couple of lopsided victories as Yujiro Kushida shut out Jeff Cobb and Kenny Omega also shut out his fellow Bullet Club brother Cody Rhodes. The other lopsided victory goes to The Villain Marty Scurll as he held Mexican star Fenix to only one vote. The big upset of the first round belongs to Kyle O’ Reilly who 72% of the votes over his opponent Kota Ibushi. So with all that being said, look below to find out who your second round matches are going to be and also be on the lookout for the second round voting.

It sad for me to say that for a guy who has been a wrestling fan since he can remember which is about 31 years or so, this was the first Ring Of Honor pay per view that I have ever seen in my life. Last night at the Frontier Fieldhouse in Chicago, Ring Of Honor held it’s annual PPV Global Wars 2016 which is a joint venture with New Japan Pro Wrestling. When I first looked at the card, it looked like it was going to be one hell of a night because let’s face it, the indies is where it’s at these days. One of my favorite matches of the night went to IWGP heavyweight champion Tetsuya Naito who took on Kyle O’Reilly in one heck of a singles match. The match was full of non stop action and both wrestlers impressed me a lot. The match that was a close second was the Ring Of Honor Tag Team Title match which saw the champions War Machine defeat The Briscoes for the first time in their careers. One f the matches that I was excited for in the night was seeing the Bullet Club (The Young Bucks, Tama Tonga, and Tanga Roa) who took on The Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin), Kushida, and Matt Sydal. We were promised a superkick party like you wouldn’t believe and we didn’t get a single one during the match (psst: they would make it up later). Overall, every match on the card was actually pretty incredible and it was so cool to see my favorite Japanese wrestler of all time in Jushin Thunder Liger. He teamed up with a guy named Cheeseburger as they defeated the Addiction. The only thing I would have changed was the end of the heavyweight title match between Jay Lethal and Colt Cabana. Yes, we finally got our superkick party we had all been waiting for and a new member was revealed (Adam Cole), but the match itself was actually an incredible one. Nonetheless, one thing is definitely for sure after seeing this pay per view and it’s that I am going to be playing close attention next time. I am giving the show an A- for a final grade overall. Here are the rest of the results: